"The Story of 'T. Buff' (Tommy Buffington)"

The main broadcast channels for some of the local TV stations based in southwest Alabama often had videos of a person nicknamed "T. Buff" (Tommy Buffington) promoting a company specialized in selling furniture named the Hoffman Furniture Company in their programming feeds at various intervals between the years 1980 and 2011 (he had died in the year 2004 (at 76 years of age)).

Here are some details about his life and career promoting companies like the Hoffman Furniture Company:

  • He had his own business specialized in promoting other businesses for at least 50 years (it was named T. Buff & Associates).  
  • Most of his advertisements were produced in the city of Texarkana in the state of Texas. 
  • He was willing to sell two or three of his advertisements to clients of his for $75 each. 
  • He had specialized in stores having sales for their grand openings and closings. 
  • He used to be a consultant specialized in retail for a store named Browns Brothers Furniture in the city of Salt Lake City in the state of Utah and had promoted them through a radio station licensed to its city of Provo named KLRZ-FM. 
  • The owner of the radio station named KLRZ-FM from between the years 1980 and 1986 (B. Eric Rhoads) was quoted as having recalled giving him grief over his radio advertisements after thinking they were overly "folksy" and "hickish sounding" before admitting they were "packing" the store named Browns Brothers Furniture with customers (note: the owner used to promote the store with advertisements he had considered slicker).  
  • The member of the Hoffman Furniture Company who hired him to promote them was the owner of it at the time he was hired (Ron Hoffman). 
  • The owner of the radio station named KLRZ-FM was quoted as having recalled his offering this sentence as a piece of advice: “If you want to appeal to the masses, you can’t hang out with the classes”.
  • The member of the Hoffman Furniture Company who hired him had decided on having him promote their furniture stores after receiving a recommendation from a dealer of furniture in the city of Birmingham in the state of Alabama since he had been doing some promotions for a business there named Mr. King Furniture (note: it was operated by some brothers named David Sher and Martin Sher from the year 1976 to the year 1996). 
  • One of his earliest videos for promoting the Hoffman Furniture Company was inspired by a TV program based on science fiction named “Star Trek” (it had him appear as though he were in outer space wearing a shirt similar to the ones worn by the crew of the Star Ship Enterprise on the program before making his self disappear by request as if he were in the transporter room in the Star Ship Enterprise (it also had audio of him saying, “Thank you” after disappearing) and even broadcast with at least one episode of the program ("The City on the Edge of Forever" on the programming feed for WPMI-TV in Mobile in the year 1989).  
  • He and the member of the Hoffman Furniture Company who hired him had worked together without a contract by keeping promises and shaking hands (note: the member was quoted as having called him a friend). 
  • One of the stores operated by the Hoffman Furniture Company occasionally had visitors imitating him (they took bows before saying, "Thank you"). 
  • The member of the Hoffman Furniture Company who hired him was quoted as having said he did not know his appeal and guessed it was his due to his resemblance to a character on a TV program named "The Dukes of Hazzard" (Roscoe (Boss) Hogg). 
  • The member of the Hoffman Furniture Company who hired him was quoted as having recalled some folks expressing either like or dislike for him.
  • He was known by another nickname in addition to "T. Buff": "Texas T."
  • The member of the Hoffman Furniture Company who hired him was quoted as having recalled his ability to "attract' people, including persons who did not know him, with his personality.
  • He had moved to the city of Lenoir in the state of North Carolina near the end of his life.
  • He had helped one of his children (a son named Randy) operate a store specialized in furniture named Randy’s Outlet and continued to produce advertisements for some clients of his while in retirement (his wife (named Linda) proceeded to operate the store in place of him after his death.)
  • The member of the Hoffman Furniture Company who hired him said he did not know of his death until over a year after the death itself due to a lack of contact they had by the end of their partnership. 

3 comments:

  1. I remember the Brown Brothers Furniture and Appliance commercials very well! T-Buff even produced a hit single called "The Ballad of Texas T-Buff" which aired on several radio statons in Salt Lake City. I've been trying to locate a copy of that, can't find it anywhere. The lyrics were silly. He was basically mocking himself. "When someone hands me my money I say, 'Thank YEW!!!!!! (background vocalist 'Thank you!') I say, 'Thank yew!!!!"

    He did a commercial for KLRZ (Color 95) where an announcer off camera would ask, "Hey, Utah! What's your favorite color?" It would cut to T-Buff saying, "BLUE!!!!" And then he would be splashed with blue paint.

    Mr. Buffington was quite the character. People either loved or hated him.

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  2. Fun little piece of trivia... Brown Brothers Furniture was famous for their "Going Out of Business!" sales. They would "go out of business" at least twice a year. Sometimes three times a year. The "Going Out of Business!" sales happened so frequently that the State of Utah changed their laws to prevent businesses from committing serial business closure sales. If you had an advertisement saying that you are "Going Out of Business" then you MUST go out of business! After that law was established Brown Brothers had a final "Going Out of Business!" sale and shuttered their doors. They reopened under a new name just a few days later but business never returned and they had to shutter permanently just a few months later.

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  3. For a time I wrote and produced television commercials for T. Buff. After that, I became a marketing professor and would tell my students what I learned from Tommy: “There are two kinds of commercials that work,” Tommy said. “Those that are very good and those that are very bad. Ours are very bad!”
    He was quite a character.

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